What Joy And Peace Has God Revealed To You This Christmas Season That Passes Our Understanding?
Good Morning Friends,
How culture openly expresses Christianity is changing rapidly. So, as we continue to unpack our spiritual gifts this season, we need to look for Jesus beyond the manger scenes and worship services into the face of what we will never know but only feel. Today is the third day of Christmas. Now since God is omnipresent…everywhere… it follows that we might be as likely to find God hidden in the secular and commercial activities of the season as in a worship service. And I guess that is true to a point. Since God is present even in situations and areas where it is not obvious, we need to be looking for God in unexpected places. Of course, we might find sin there too. But let’s not be too quick to judge for God often uses surprising ways of redeeming the world. But thinking about all this has its limits. We cannot think ourselves into heaven. There are pitfalls on the path. So, What Joy And Peace Has God Revealed To You This Christmas Season That Passes Our Understanding?
Scripture: We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us— we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
1 John 1:1-4 (NRSV)
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;
John 20:1a, 2-8 (NRSV)
Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? says the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord.
Jeremiah 23:24 (NRSV)
and in the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest. His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire,
Revelation 1:13-14 (NRSV)
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14 (NRSV)
Message: Now that Christmas day has passed, and our attention is turning to the best of 2019 lists and the likes of the Bowl matchups, and we are starting to hear a lot fewer Christmas carols everywhere. The Radio stations have stopped playing 24/7 Christmas music. A week ago, we would hear music in the movies and on TV and in shops. A week ago, it was impossible to find any media that did not have Christmas carols playing. Some of these carols have an obvious message that pertains to the Christmas season — songs like Away in a Manger, Silent Night, and Joy to The World all proclaim proudly the true reason for the season. And though Jesus never sang any of them I think there is some enjoyment in singing the traditional ones, for even the Twelve Days of Christmas has meaning embedded even though it might not have started out that way. So, I wonder about the songs that have no obvious spiritual connection and if they tend to take the Christ out of Christmas or if they are just another example of God’s redeeming grace. Perhaps we need to read Christ back into secular songs and redeem the message. Maybe it is possible that they could proclaim the glory of God too because God cannot be limited by the words of the songs we sing. Maybe next year as a resolution we need to claim the territory as God’s from all the commercialism by not excluding what is God’s but instead acknowledging that the joy of the season can be omnipresent. Jesus was 100% human and 100% God. And that is the mystery of the Season that extends throughout the year. So here on the third day of Christmas we have a scripture passage on the resurrection, and I am reminded that this is the second biggest retail event of the year after Christmas. But it is so much more important than the season we are celebrating. But amid the chocolate, fairy tales and commercialism to come we do not want to forget the mystery of the history of how God breaks into the history of the world in the songs we sing. So, we can practice on the secular Easter songs too but humor me for a moment as we look at the secular Christmas songs, we might have heard in 2019. Imagine with me, if Santa Coming to Town was a metaphor for the return of Christ? What if I’m Dreaming of A White Christmas is really about Jesus in Heaven dressed in white? What if we replaced “Frosty the Snowman” with “Jesus Christ” and see what happens? Really there are several lyrics here that might reference Christ and His life that is beyond a fantasy. Friends, people have been saying Jesus is a fairytale for a long time and though he is not made of snow, He is pictured in the book of Revelation as being in heaven dressed in the image of shimmering white snow. How appropriate would it be if the resurrection story were being spread by people who did not even believe? Read today’s scripture and think about it. And yes, let’s not forget that children know that he came to life one day is scriptural as well. So, friends, in a way it was Jesus Christ that had to hurry on his way, and waved goodbye, saying “Don’t you cry, I’ll be back again someday.” Ok, maybe it is a bit of a stretch and, Frosty the Snowman is only a song about a snowman that is lost for those of us in Florida. But it also can be a metaphor for the death and resurrection of Christ if we choose to believe it. Frosty the Snowman comes to life, the children believe. Maybe we need to redeem more things as God’s if they bring us joy.
And So, that the Word became flesh needs to be communicated clearly so people might believe in a way that saves them. It is important that we are aware of rot that can damage our Spirit and its fruit. When it comes to believing in the Word becoming flesh in the form of Jesus Christ, there are two kinds of disease that can come and plague us. One is of the wills that overrides the relationship with Jesus and the other is related to thinking in the wrong way about the relationship. Bad habits and moral failures relate to the first disease and wrong thinking such as Gnosticism and dualistic thought relates to the second. So, friends, important though knowledge is it is insufficient alone. Relying on secret knowledge without faith as a sufficient means of salvation is a dead end. In general, Gnostics taught that it is what a person knows that saves him. The idea is that there are secrets known only to the special few that set them off and give them the means to understand the spiritual element of humans. This was thought to be the only thing worth revealing. They taught dualism, the notion that the physical is evil, maybe made by an evil God, and the spiritual is good. They falsely believed that Jesus Christ was the one who brought this knowledge. Some even believed Jesus was just an apparition, a spiritual reality, not in the flesh. In the Gospel of John, he emphasizes that the Word was made flesh, and pitched His tent among us. In today’s letter from John he tells us Christ was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands. Spirit and body, flesh and spirit are Christ, and are in us to be redeemed as is the world. Moreover, the great promise to us is that we, like Jesus and Mary, will rise from the dead to be present, spirit, soul and body, to our God forever and ever redeemed.
Pray we find Christian meaning in unexpected places. Pray we know but also affirm and believe in the mystery as we imagine a better world created by God. Pray we like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer shine a way for others to see. Pray we realize that saying Happy Holidays does not take Jesus out of them. Pray we realize we are to keep celebrating Christ each day. Pray our holiday sadness turns to joy. Pray we believe that Christ will come again someday. Pray we believe in the power of Christ’s love to permeate all of creation redeeming the world in unexpected ways. Pray we beware of habits of behaving and thinking as well as failures of the intellect that minimize the miracle of the Word becoming flesh. Pray we realize why Jesus, the light of world, and, the Word made flesh, came in the first place.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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